Archive for the ‘Economic Warfare’ Category

— I went looking for news about New Haven, Connecticut police claiming they need military grade 30 shot clips for their automatic weapons to go after somebody whose online posts made them think he might have planned to attack a Puerto Rican day celebration in New Haven – { I remember that the New Haven police tried to charge a man they suspected of having the AIDS virus in the late 1980’s/Early 1990’s with attempted murder after he spit at them. }

— What I found was more like, “Politicians going off the rails, lying with impunity and trying to scare the livin’ cement out of their constituents to win votes.”

– Andrew Sheer wants to be the Prime Minister of Canada after Elections this coming autumn – He seems to be trying to use the “Divide and Conquer” tactics that work so well down here in the USA. – —djo—

— A past life regression Doctor in the UK claims that British/UK police plan to assassinate Jullian Assange on orders from the US government.

– A barrage of tweets and retweets from this “Past Life Regression” Doctor indicate that he believes that Julian Assange will be assassinated if he doesn’t sign false confessions –

– Apparently, Julian Assange’s mother believes her son is being tortured and will probably be assassinated for reporting the truth that our not so nice government officials never wanted us to know about…

— If you want to check out the links in these tweets, you can’t get there from here. Go on Twitter, follow the author and read what the links have to say.

– This is another complaint by someone saying she isn’t happy with the way Andrew Sheer is lying, attempting to deceive voters with divisive and untrue accusations against the current Prime Minister of Canada’s track record. –

— And there was a bunch of stuff accusing anybody who is against fracking of being idiotic and ignoring the ‘fact’ that fracking is safer and better for all of us than alternatives. Fracking has caused earthquakes, series of earthquakes, and cracked the underground barriers between aquifer and gas pockets so badly that wells and waterlines have been poisoned and tap-water inside people’s homes can burst into flames.

— And now to support one of my rants:

– Economic Warfare .101 – Why do people go crazy when regular workers ask for a living wage while top executives get $10,000. an hour (or more?) ?

— Shrug – Another day, another reason to pay no attention to anything the main stream media screams at you…

Wednesday, February 20th, 2019 – +27˚F / -3˚C & cloudy in the Ithaca, New York area @ 1:30 pm Eastern Time –

— It’s been a while since anyone’s posted anything new here – and that isn’t because there is nothing newsworthy going on. Real Life has a way of interfering with our blogging / reporting aspirations.

– The CRTC – Canada’s Telecommunications Regulater – { Kind of their version of the FCC } Has found deceptive practices and “misleading, high pressure tactics” are too common among Canadian Companies trying to sell you their telecommunications services. – It’s Official –

–

The CRTC says an inquiry has confirmed allegations Canada’s telecommunications industry used unacceptable sales practices that misled consumers and harmed vulnerable members of the public.

The commission says the misleading and aggressive practices exist in all types of sales channels, including in stores, online, over the telephone and at homes when companies conduct door-to-door sales campaigns.

The CRTC says it plans to follow up its report with measures to address the problems identified through the inquiry, but most of them will require additional regulatory proceedings.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission is a semi-autonomous federal agency responsible for upholding the Telecommunications Act and the Broadcasting Act, which are both under review by the federal government.

= = = = =

— Donald J Trump Watch :

– I was in Canada Yesterday – Spending as much quality time with my sweetie as I could and probably woke up the neighbours when I whooped loudly as I heard an FBI spokesperson tell the world that Donald J Trump is being investigated as a possible threat to US National Security. I haven’t been able to find the time after zooming home and getting ready to power nap before work to see it that was reported down here. But –

—

America’s auto industry is bracing for a potential escalation in U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff war with the world, one that could weaken the global auto industry and economy, inflate car prices and trigger a backlash in Congress.

Late Sunday, the Commerce Department sent the White House a report on the results of an investigation Trump had ordered of whether imported vehicles and parts pose a threat to U.S. national security. Commerce hasn’t made its recommendations public, and the White House has so far declined to comment. If Commerce did find that auto imports imperil national security, Trump would have 90 days to decide whether to impose those import taxes.

Trump has repeatedly invoked his duty as president to safeguard national security in justifying previous rounds of tariffs. An obscure provision in trade law authorizes a president to impose unlimited tariffs on particular imports if his Commerce Department concludes that those imports threaten America’s national security.

Whatever Commerce has concluded in this case, Trump has made clear his enthusiasm for tariffs in general and for auto tariffs in particular. Some analysts say they think Commerce has likely endorsed the tariffs, not least because the president has conveyed his preference for them.

Among Commerce’s recommendations “will certainly be tariffs because, hey, he’s a tariff man,” said William Reinsch, a former U.S. trade official and now a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, referring to a nickname that Trump gave himself.

Industry conference call to discuss what might happen

Industry officials took part in a conference call Tuesday to discuss the possible steps Trump could take. They include tariffs of up to 25 per cent on imported parts only; on assembled vehicles only; or on both vehicles and parts — including those from Mexico and Canada. The last option would be an especially unusual one given that the United States, Mexico and Canada reached a new North American trade deal late last year, and the legislatures of all
three nations must still ratify it.

In public hearings last year, the idea of imposing import taxes on autos drew almost no support. Even U.S. automakers, which ostensibly would benefit from a tax on their foreign competitors, opposed the potential tariffs. Among other concerns, the automakers worry about retaliatory tariffs that the affected nations would impose on U.S. vehicles. Many U.S. automakers also depend on imported parts that could be subject to Trump’s tariffs and could become more expensive.

A similar Commerce investigation last year resulted in the Trump administration imposing taxes on imported steel and aluminum in the name of national security. The administration has adopted an extraordinarily broad view of national security to include just about anything that might affect the economy.

In addition to steel and aluminum, Trump has imposed tariffs on dishwashers, solar panels and hundreds of Chinese products. Targeting autos would further raise the stakes. The United States imported $340 billion in cars, trucks and auto parts in 2017.

If this, then that

If the administration imposed 25 per cent tariffs on imported parts and vehicles including those from Canada and Mexico, the price of imported vehicles would jump more than 17 per cent, or an average of around $5,000 each, according to estimates by IHS Markit. Even the prices of vehicles made in the U.S. would rise by about 5 per cent, or $1,800, because all of them use some imported parts.

Luxury brands would absorb the sharpest increase: $5,800 on average, IHS concluded. Mass-market vehicle prices would rise an average of $3,300.

If the tariffs were fully assessed, IHS predicts that price increases would cause U.S. auto sales to fall by an average of 1.8 million vehicles a year through 2026. Auto industry officials say that if sales fall, there almost certainly will be U.S. layoffs. Dealers who sell German and some Japanese brands would be hurt the most by the tariffs.

“The economic fallout would be significant, with auto tariffs hurting the global economy by distorting prices and creating inefficiencies, and the impact would reverberate across global supply chains,” Moody’s Investors Service said in a report. “The already weakening pace of global expansion would magnify global growth pressures, causing a broader hit to business and consumer confidence amid tightening financial conditions.”

Congress could resist the auto tariffs. Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Penn., and Mark Warner, D-Va., have introduced legislation to reassert congressional control over trade. Their bill would give Congress 60 days to approve any tariffs imposed on national security grounds. It would also shift responsibility for such investigations away from Commerce to the Pentagon.

Using tariffs as leverage

Some analysts say they suspect that Trump intends to use the tariffs as leverage to pressure Japan and Europe to limit their auto exports to the United States and to prod Japanese and European automakers to build more vehicles at their U.S. plants.

Reinsch notes that Trump’s top trade negotiator, Robert Lighthizer, worked in the Reagan administration, which coerced Japan into accepting “voluntary” limits on its auto exports.

“This is the way Lighthizer thinks,” Reinsch said.

Even if the tariff threat resulted in negotiations, Europe and Japan would have demands of their own. A likely one: Compelling the U.S. to drop its longstanding 25 per cent tax on imported light trucks.

Trump is “pursuing something that, as near as I can tell, the domestic (auto) industry doesn’t want,” Reinsch said. “Once he pursues it, he is going to be under pressure to give up the one thing the auto industry really does want” — the U.S. tariff on imported light trucks.

For now, many in the industry are upset that the Commerce Department report remains secret, feeding uncertainty.

“The 137,000 people who work for Toyota across America deserve to know whether they are considered a national security threat,” Toyota said in a statement Tuesday. “And the American consumer needs to know whether the cost of every vehicle sold in the U.S. may increase.”

The American International Automobile Dealers Association this week called the Commerce Department’s investigation “bogus.”

“Now, dealerships must continue to operate under a cloud of uncertainty, not knowing if at any moment their products will be slapped with 25 per cent tariffs, raising vehicle and repair costs by thousands of dollars and slashing sales,” the association’s CEO, Cody Lusk, said in a statement.

{ Canadian Auto makers’ Unions have a campaign they’re paying television broadcasters to air – asking everyone up there to boycott any GM products made in Mexico – and/or not to buy any General Motors vehicles unless they have been manufactured in Canada. GM is closing down a long-time auto plant a bit to the east of Toronto in favour of shifting production to Mexico where they can get away with under-paying their workers in factories that do not have to follow as strict safety regulations as Canadian factories need to abide by. I am ashamed to admit that I haven’t been on twitter lately to see what Michael Moore has to say about this. -djo- }

— And I should also be ashamed to admit that I need a little bit of sleep before I have to get up and remain reasonably alert on the night shift down here.

— Above news articles ‘lifted’ / copied and pasted from the CBC News Web Site : <– That is a link

Saturday, 01 August, 2015 -( 18˚C /64˚F & clearing after this afternoon’s brief but intense thunderstorm in our neck of New Brunswick, Canada, North America, Earth…. where it is 8:05 pm )-

We’ve just spent two days updating web sites and deleting spam ‘comments’ and have more to do, but we’re still here and still insanely dedicated to trying to get quality news to anyone who wants to read it- Thank you for being there.

If you really have something to say you can get email to me @ jimdaerendel@aerendel.org